When You Believe
by Female Duo
Summary: A brother and sister find themselves in Neverland. But Peter Pan doesn't let anyone enter Neverland without reason. So what's his angle allowing the girl in? Rating is for language, violence, and sexual situations (to include non-con).
1. Welcome to Neverland

**Disclaimer: I do own Once Upon a Time and all of its character. They belong to ABC which is a branch of Disney, so technically Disney owns it all. Sad face. But I do own Maria and Jesse, so please don't use them without my consent (not that you would, but I have to say it.)**

**I hope you all enjoy!**

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"Jesse, is that real? Or am I really, really high right now?"

Big blue eyes stared up at the shadow figure hovering before the two teenagers.

"Yes," the boy answered, "That's Peter Pan's shadow."

"You mean, we can go to Neverland? We can leave this place?" the girl asked hopefully.

"Yes," the boy answered enthusiastically.

The teenage girl couldn't believe it. They could actually leave this hell they were living in. "Then what are we waiting for?" she asked.

With that, Maria took her brother's hand and then grabbed the shadow's hand. All three were off, flying over the dark streets of the city, flying to a place that Maria hoped would be a great, new start on both their lives.

Maria, as many children, had heard of Neverland and Peter Pan, either through literature, movies, songs, and even bedtime stories at her foster homes. It was a place where children never had to grow up, where anything could happen so long as you believed it could. A place where mermaids swam, pirates docked and fought with Lost Boys, and Indians still roamed. A place where adults didn't use and abuse children.

Of course she had heard of some drawbacks to such a Utopian place, things such as children missing their friends, their family and especially their parents. But Maria and Jesse didn't have any close friends, nor family, nor parents, so there was no one for them to miss so long as they were with each other. Neverland would be perfect for them.

Or so she thought that at the time.

"Jesse, look! We're here!" Maria said, pointing with her elbow down at the island they were descending to. The shadow gently set them down and the two teenagers gaped around at the beautiful scenery. They were on a soft sand beach with the forest to one side and a beautiful, blue lagoon to the other side. The trees seemed to go on for days upwards, and as they looked up, they had to cover their eyes from the bright, warm sun. There was no smog or smoke choking the air, no car horns honking or trains rolling by, echoing across the sky, no shouting or cussing from pissed off people, no coughing and hacking from sick homeless people, nothing that came with the city was in this new place.

"Jesse, pinch me," the sixteen year old told her younger brother. Without questioning why, the taller boy pinched the girl's arm, snapping her out of her trance.

"Ow! What was that for?!"

"You told me to!" he defended with a laugh as his sister rubbed the sore spot on her arm.

"And when did you start doing what you're told?"

"Since you told me to pinch you," he replied, sticking his tongue out at her.

A black eyebrow raised before she spoke again. "Oh yeah, wise guy?" Maria looked around and noted a few rocks near the edge of the water, a perfect place to jump in at. She got an idea and quickly took off her backpack and reached to take her brother's off of him.

"Well, if that's the case, let's see if you can dunk me before I dunk you! Then we'll see who's in charge now," she teased, pulling and dragging her brother towards the rocks.

Even though the boy was two years younger, he was a good four inches taller than his 'big' sister. He was able to restrain her grabbing hands and drag _her_ to the rocks at the water's edge. He tried to throw her into the water, but the clever sister wrapped her leg around his, making it impossible to move her anywhere without him going with her. So he caved in and decided to jump in the water with her, well, more like fall into the water with her attached to him.

The two were laughing and splashing, and having a great time, all the while being watched by a group of lost boys hiding in the trees on shore. Peter Pan had known the moment the two got to Neverland and he sent Felix out with a welcoming party to fetch them.

Surfacing from a second dunking, Maria had a thought as she looked around at Neverland. "Hey, Jesse, we're really here, aren't we?" she half stated and half asked.

"Yes, I suppose we are. Well, we're at least somewhere," he answered, taking a cue from his sister and also looking around them. The sun was a bit passed noon, but at least a couple hours from dusk, so it was bright and clear. The water was such a clear, light blue color, and the siblings could see their legs as they treaded in the water.

"Well, either way, we're not where we used to be," she replied, "Which means, we don't have to be who we used to be." Maria rubbed the scars on wrist for a second, memories beginning to chew on her brain. "We can be anything we want now. Any_one_ we want."

Jesse was seeing the wheels turning in his sister's head as she spoke, and he nodded his head in understanding. "What did you have in mind?" he inquired, putting a hand over her fidgeting ones under the water.

Maria blinked away the memories threatening to surface and looked up at her brother. "Misfit," she said simply. "I'm Misfit now. What about you?"

Jesse thought about it a second, coming up with an idea in the meantime. He took advantage of his sister's distracted state and struck again, splashing water at her before wrestling with her, while she was screeching at him, and then finally dunking her under, her mouth open and everything.

"OH! And now it's Jay-Jay three and Missy a big, fat, zero!" the boy shouted after his sister came up sputtering from her, now, third dunking.

"Oh shut up!" she said, splashing at him, "and it's Mis_fit_ not 'Missy'. Remember? God, Missy sounds like a dog's name." She wiped at her face, hoping her make-up wasn't running. Truth was, her black make-up was smeared all over her eyes, the sides of her eyes, and starting to drip down the rest of her face. The girl really did tend to wear too much make-up.

"Jay-Jay?" She thought for a second, "I like it."

"Does that mean I'm in charge now? You know, since I've gotten you, what is it now, three times?" Jay-Jay inquired.

"Did I say that? Ah, well, PSYCHE!" That earned her another attempt and success at dunking her under the water, but it was worth it.

Felix felt it was good time to reveal themselves to the two in the water. He had seen enough of their interactions to determine that the girl wasn't going to pose a threat to any of them. He motioned for the group to come out of hiding and finally be noticed. Pan hadn't told them there would be a girl, but his orders were still the same: bring them in.

It was Maria "Misfit" who spotted the small group of boys first.

"Don't look now, but we have company," she whispered to her brother, as she reached for her switch blade in her pocket. Jesse "Jay-Jay" didn't turn around but he did look a bit concerned. "What should we do?" he asked.

"Well, our shit is on shore, I don't want to leave it. And if we swim out, who knows how long it will take us to find another embankment? So, I guess we say 'hello,' and find out what they want, and hope it's nothing bad. Follow my lead," she instructed.

She made her way back to the shore, her brother following behind her, and her hands in her pockets to hide what she had. Misfit smiled brightly, hoping this would be a friendly interaction. Her blue jeans and baggy t-shirt were dripping wet, and her tennis shoes squashed with each step she took.

"Hello. Are we trespassing or something?" she asked the taller boy with dirty blonde hair.

Upon seeing the girl's black, smeared make-up, Felix couldn't help but crack a smile in an attempt to keep from laughing at her. Her make-up looked like a bad attempt at war paint, dripping down her face and smudged all over her eyes, it was a little hard to not laugh at her.

"Um," was the only other indicator that he was trying not to snicker, "you're not trespassing but your presence is requested," he said.

"_My_ presence?" she asked, with an over exaggerated hand to her chest and batting of her eyelashes.

Felix raised an eyebrow at the girl. She was clever, and annoying, thus far. "Not just yours. The both of you," he informed, glancing between the brother-sister duo.

"Who wants to see us?" Jay-Jay chimed in, picking up his bag to fish out a towel.

"You'll find out soon," the blonde replied. It appeared to Misfit that he was the leader of this group. But the very idea that they weren't telling the siblings exactly who wanted to see them, and they thought it was okay, was laughable. Misfit and Jay-Jay weren't about to just follow some random orders anymore. She couldn't help but let out a small snicker at all the secrecy.

"Yeah, sorry Lord of the Flies, but we're not going anywhere without a good reason," she informed the blonde, a smart-ass grin on her face. That's when Felix dropped his smile altogether, his features becoming severe, making Misfit take a step back out of caution.

Then she saw something she really should have seen from the beginning of it all: all the boys were carrying weapons of different kinds. The one she was eyeing the most was the big, blunt club that the tall blonde was carrying. She tore her eyes away from the imposing weapon to lock eyes with the boy, trying to read his next move while she calculated hers.

"Jesus," she called to her brother, who already knew something was up because she only used his full name when something was no-shit serious. In a split-second decision, made so that her actions couldn't be easily read, Misfit balled up a fist and struck the taller Lost Boy across the jaw.

"Run!" she shouted as she kicked Felix in the shin and started running in a different direction. She hadn't noticed that her two hits hardly fazed the boy, nor did she notice that her brother failed to do as he was told. She was the only sibling running and Felix was close behind her.

It didn't help that Misfit's clothes were soaking wet, slowing her down dramatically, as well as being on an island she knew nothing about. Had they been in the city, she would have found many ways to leave her pursuer in the dust. But with her handicaps, the taller boy caught up with her quickly.

He slammed himself into her in order to knock her down without causing serious injury, but still stop her in her tracks. Misfit was quick to pull out her switch blade and open it as she fell down. She rolled over onto her back and pressed the blade against the boy's neck, just as he pinned her body to the ground to keep her from moving or trying to get up.

Misfit didn't want to use the blade on the blonde, but if he even dared to try anything with her, she wouldn't hesitate to start slashing at his flesh to get him to get off of her.

The two locked eyes again, both intensely serious, both passing non-verbal threats unto the other.

The thick air was cut harshly by laughter - laughter that Misfit knew all too well. She broke her eye contact with the other boy in order to glare up at her brother's general direction.

"Jesus, what the fuck?!"

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**Here's the first chapter. Please let me know what you think of it. For clarification, Jay-Jay's name is Jesus pronounced 'Hey-suess', as in the Spanish way of saying that name.**

**I would like to thank Ingenious Insomniac for answering all my questions and providing insightful reviews over my writing. You're such a sweetheart!**


	2. Where Do You Come From?

**Disclaimer: Same as the previous. I don't own anything except my two OCs.**

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Maria "Misfit" Cantu was not amused. Not in the least. Here she was, trying her best to protect her brother, like she has for the past eight years, and what was he doing? What?

He, Jesus "Jay-Jay" Cantu, was standing over the whole situation, laughing, hysterically. Like neither one of them were in any kind of danger from this band of boys.

"Really?!" she bitched at him through gritted teeth, doing her best to keep her anger in check. Misfit had virtually forgotten about the 168 pound body on top of hers. That was, until she felt a sharp pain in her wrist. In the moment that the girl was distracted by her brother, Felix took the opportunity to rid himself of the blade pressed against his throat.

He may have twisted the girl's wrist a bit too hard, but he didn't doubt for a second that the girl would have pressed harder if she had to. So it was either her or him to get hurt, and Felix chose her. She was the outsider; he was second-in-command. It wasn't a tough decision to make.

After dislodging the knife from Misfit's hand, Felix took it away from her and got up. Misfit had let out a scream at the harsh twist, but she slapped her other hand over her mouth to cut it short. She didn't want to appear weak, by any means.

As soon as Felix was off of her, she let her anger flare.

"What the fuck is going on here?!" she yelled at everyone. The rest of the group had caught up just as Jay-Jay started laughing at the little struggle. But he stopped when his sister got hurt. He went to her side and offered a hand for her to take.

"Sorry sis. I didn't think you'd go all Commando on Felix," he said as Misfit brushed off the hand and got herself up. "This is Pan's welcoming committee," he further explained.

Misfit was wiping mud off of her jeans and shirt, her mouth in a tight, straight line. "Welcoming committee?" she barked, the purple strip of her black, wet hair whipping back at the sharp head turn she gave to look at her brother. She could feel mud in her earrings, including the clasp on her left cartilage. The thought of her cartilage chain earring having mud in it, and Misfit having to take off the whole ear piece, and clean each and every link, furthered her fury.

Jay-Jay could see his sister clench and unclench her fists. He was starting to feel bad about not having told her that he knew Neverland already. He was pretty sure that if he stepped any closer to her, he'd be the next one hit. So he took a leery step back from her.

Then something clicked in Misfit's head and the revelation showed on her face.

"Wait, Pan? As in, Peter Pan? What? How... do.. you? What?" Misfit was confused now. "Do you mean to tell me, _Jay-Jay_," she said his name with pure venom, "that you actually know what the fuck is going on here?" she asked, her voice calculated yet pissed off.

Jay-Jay gave a sheepish grin. "Um.. yes," he stated as a question.

A scream of frustration then rang out through the trees, coming from the short, 5' 2" teenager. Felix, as did some of the other boys, quickly covered their ears at the sound. He still had the girl's switch blade in his hand but that didn't stop her from swinging at her brother. Maybe these two would prove to be good entertainment? Perhaps that's why Pan allowed the sister in? He always had his reasons for things, Felix knew.

He decided the sibling rivalry was carrying on too long and he knew Pan hated to wait for things. Felix cleared his throat rather loudly to get their attention. When the girl still proceeded to attack her brother, Felix moved to a more direct way.

"Alright!" he shouted, grabbing the shorter one by the back of her shirt and avoiding another swing at his face.

"Step off!" Misfit yelled.

"Stop already! They're not going to hurt us," Jay-Jay said, getting a bit fed up with his sister.

Misfit despised being told what to do, but she was clearly outnumbered, to include her own brother, and although she was tough, she'd never be able to fight all of them. She was having a difficult time with just the tall one. So she stopped struggling, and Felix let her go.

"You'll get this back if Pan says you can have it back," Felix told her, holding her knife up for her to see before he put it away in a small bag he had. She hated being treated like a child, but all she could do was raise her middle finger to the blonde. That's when Felix noticed the dragon tattoo wrapped around her left wrist. It was identical to the one Jay-Jay had on his right wrist. He wondered what other markings the teenager had on her body.

He sized up the girl in front of him. Her hair was long, and black, the same as her brother's short hair, except she had a chunk of purple on the right side. It wasn't half of her hair, but it was still significant to not miss easily. She had several earrings on both her ears, and even one with a chain on it in one ear. Her nails were a dark blue color, something similar to Neverland's night sky, and she was small framed but had muscle tone, her wet clothes clinging to her, making clear her muscles through her shirt and even her jeans.

Misfit shifted a bit under the taller boy's scrutiny. "Can we fucking get on with it?" she spat.

"Yeah, we can start walking," Jay-Jay answered, "Is he at camp?" he asked Felix. Felix just nodded before turning to lead the way. Jay-Jay carried both of their bags with him, his personal penance for what happened to his sister, and he instructed her to follow his every step because there were certain plants she didn't want to brush against. Misfit was hating all of this, but nodded her acknowledgment and followed close behind her little brother.

Before the siblings came to Neverland, they lived in the city of Lost Angels: Los Angeles, California. It wasn't where they had hailed from, but it was where a bus brought them one day, a little over six months ago. Maria and Jesse had run away from their fourth foster home because of reasons Maria didn't want to say but Jesse suspected.

Los Angeles was supposed to be their new start and as a symbol of their bond as family, they got the matching tattoos through a deal Maria worked out with a parlor owner. She'd work for him as a janitor until she paid off the tattoos, meanwhile the two could stay in the apartment upstairs so long as they didn't get caught by the cops and didn't fuck anything up. Jesse was able to go to school through forged documents and marking the tattoo parlor owner as his guardian, and Maria worked as a janitor.

She didn't care much about going to school for herself. She could read, and so long as library memberships were free, she'd keep reading and eventually get her GED. Life wasn't easy, but it was better than being in the system like they had been for as long as they could remember, and the two actually felt like they were living their own lives. The parlor owner didn't bother them, and they had their own rules to live by.

But Maria and Jesse still wished things could be easier, less stressful, and more than anything they wanted to be kids - not kids having to act as adults. Each had their own escapes; their own fantasy worlds they'd dive into whenever there was time.

One hot summer day, as the two were walking back from the store, Maria picked on her brother over his talking in his sleep.

"Were you dreaming about Peter Pan again?" she asked.

"Why do you ask it like that?" he responded.

"Like what?"

"Like you have a sarcastic remark waiting to throw at my answer," he said, shifting a bag of groceries to his other hand.

Maria gave a small laugh. "You're right. I do have a sarcastic remark waiting, but c'mon. You still believe in Peter Pan," she jabbed. She had always found it a bit odd that he hadn't given up his belief of the mythical boy after the age of ten. But in many ways it made her feel better that he wasn't completely losing his youth to the harsh world they were forced to survive in.

"Oh my god, this coming from the one who still believes in unicorns!" Jesse retorted.

Maria put up a hand in defense, as if his words were projectiles coming at her. "Hey now, the Bible talks about unicorns, okay? You're going to tell me that's all lies?"

"The Bible also says that Noah left the unicorns behind to drown in the floods. You're going to tell me you don't believe that?"

"Ah, but Noah was a dumbass for forgetting them in the first place. And besides, unicorns are immortal. Legend says they survived the floods by simply walking along the bottom of the ocean."

Jesse rolled his eyes because he knew he had gotten her started on a tangent that wouldn't end for a while.

"They found land before Noah did, and by the way, there's no way the flood engulfed the entire earth or we wouldn't be here. Also, unicorns have had to find ways of adapting to the change in human belief, by doing things such as hiding their horns so they look like regular mares, or depending on the country, changing their appearance to either scare off people or be worshipped by people. Or both, like in the case of Asia and unicorns developing dragon-like bodies. You know that Narwhals are unicorns, right? They're the ones that decided to transform themselves to better navigate the oceans. But they don't have much magic left in them because the transformation took a lot out of them. Did you know that a unicorn's horn-"

"Is pure magic and that's why they were hunted by greedy humans, yes, I know. You've preached this to me before that I'm pretty sure I can recite it all in my sleep," Jesse exasperated.

"Too bad you talk about Peter Pan instead," Maria jeered with a laugh.

"Aiight, I get it. Pan's not as cool in your world as he is mine. Now can we move on to something else?" Jesse asked.

"Fine. No need to wig out. I'll back off. Now, what sounds good for dinner?" Maria replied, changing the subject.

The two discussed what groceries they had and came up with a concoction of items. They called it the "all in" pot, or sometimes a "fuck it" dish. It was a meal created out of whatever they had available and it usually wasn't half bad.

When they came to Neverland, the two only had what was in their respective backpacks, or "go-bags" as they called them. Whenever they had to make a quick escape from somewhere, they could just grab their bags and be set for a little while before finding stable ground for them to catch their bearings.

Misfit was remembering how the whole topic of going to Neverland came up in the first place, as they walked in silence to wherever her brother and the other lost boys were taking her.

But her thoughts were disrupted when her brother stopped walking in front of her and she accidentally ran into the back of him. "We're here," he turned around and whispered to her.

But where 'here' was, Misfit didn't know. She hadn't been paying attention to anything but her own thoughts while they had walked. She didn't even know how far they had walked. It couldn't have been too far because Misfit was still pretty damp. Then again, it could be incredibly humid on the island, which would keep her clothes damp. Either way, she was currently 'here,' and still soggy.

She looked around at the place they had lead her too. It was a campsite of sorts, complete with logs to sit around a fire pit. She glanced further back to see if she could see tents or some sign of shelter for sleeping, but there were more boys around her now, and with her height, seeing beyond them wasn't the easiest task.

"Jay-Jay, it's good to see you made it here, for real this time," said a voice behind Misfit. He sounded as if he knew her brother for a while, and this scared her. She did her best to keep track of who her brother hung out with but this person, just from his voice, didn't sound the least bit familiar to her. She turned around to place a face with a voice and her breath caught in her throat.

There was a boy, couldn't have been more than sixteen or seventeen years old, but he had a powerful air about him. Misfit could see it in the eyes of the other boys, including her brother, when they looked at him. But when her cool blue eyes met his harsh green eyes, it felt like a spark went through them both. Not a romantic spark, not anything out of a Molly Ringwald movie, but something closer to an electrical spark. Misfit wasn't quite sure what it was, but she for sure felt something, and by the short moment of realization on the boy's face, Misfit knew he had felt it too.

"And this must be the older sister we've all heard so much about," the boy continued to speak, gesturing to Misfit with his hand to call attention to her, "I'm Peter Pan."

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**Whaddya think? Please let me know! Thank you!**


	3. Just Believe!

**Oh my gosh you guys! Thank you for the reviews, favorites add and story-watch adds!**

**Disclaimer: The usual, I don't own any rights to O.U.T. or anything involved with it. I do own Jay-Jay and Misfit, so please don't use them without my permission, please. Thank you!**

**Start Note: Misfit and Jay-Jay are their current, Neverland names. From here on out if they get referred to as Maria and Jesse, it's because the story is talking about their past. I hope this prevents any confusion.**

**xxx**

**Chapter 3: Just Believe!**

Maria woke up to the sound of her brother having a nightmare. Their small, open-concept apartment was dark except for the bit of moonlight coming through a window, but she knew exactly where her brother rested his head.

She rushed over to him and placed her hand on his shoulders, lightly shaking him.

"Jesse. Jesse, wake up," she told him.

His face was contorted painfully as he dreamt. Then he awoke with a start and his eyes looked scared and his breathing came in heavy gasps.

"Jesse?" she asked with worry on her face.

His eyes cleared of the fog they were in and he began to realize where he was. The sounds of the city began to sink into his consciousness and his sister's figure became familiar to him once more.

"Maria," he exasperated, pulling her to him in a tight hug, as if he hadn't seen her in years.

"Sshhh," she cooed, running a hand through his hair and the other rubbing his back, soothingly, "I'm right here. You're okay. You're okay." She didn't know what he had dreamed about that had made him so frightened, but it didn't matter now. She wasn't going to ask, she was just going to be there for him.

The siblings held each other for a few moments. "Nightmare?" Maria asked when Jesse pulled away from her. The question was more out of curiosity than trying to pry. She knew he'd only answer in a yes-or-no fashion.

"Yeah, for some reason, I couldn't find my way to Neverland, and started dreaming instead," Jesse replied, his breathing finally calming.

Maria looked confused. "You mean, you couldn't dream about Neverland?" she inquired, unsure if he meant to phrase his response the way he did.

Jesse sat up and looked his sister in the eye. "No, I mean I couldn't _get_ to it." His eyes were serious and it concerned Maria some. She didn't have a problem with his beliefs, but now he actually thought he could go, as in physically go, to a place that she wasn't even sure existed in the first place. She really hoped her brother wasn't starting to have delusions, or hallucinations.

Maria did her best to keep him away from the drugs she had done in the past, but while he was at school, she had no idea if he was getting into anything. Being at the apartment, the two would share a blunt or two over the weekend, but it was always after his homework was done, and never when there was work to do. But those didn't cause some of the things Maria was worried was happening to her brother with this near obsession of a belief.

She let out a sigh as she sat herself next to him on his mattress. This was when Maria hated being the older one, the one who had to look out for them.

"Jesse," she sighed, then paused, trying to figure out just what to say to him, "look..."

"Unicorns," was Jesse's one word reply to whatever lecture his sister was about to give him. He looked at her expectantly, and she tried to hide a defeated smile. How was she to argue against that? She really and truly believed that unicorns existed, so she had no leg to stand on to tell Jesse that Neverland wasn't real.

"Okay. Okay, fine, I give up. You win," she said, "I will admit, part of me does believe in Neverland. But, not the way you do, Jess. I live ... _we _live in this world where it is so hard to believe in something like Neverland, and unicorns. The way I see Neverland is as a place that is fun to visit in your sleep when you're dreaming. It's an escape from school, landlords, cops, gangs, bad country music." Jesse let out a laugh at the last one, but he knew she had more to say. He'd wait until she was finished voicing her concerns before he made his case to her.

"But, it is so hard for me, just me, to see it as a real place. An actual, living place for us to run away to. I mean, I hate to say this," Jesse gave her a skeptical look, "No really, I detest having to say this. I can't even believe the words are going to come out of my mouth, but Jesse, I think I'm growing up." There, she said it. Something Maria had been dreading to say for the past year, but it was true.

Jesse held a look of betrayal on his face. She had hurt him without even knowing it. But with his sister's confession now outwardly said, he knew there was only one way to prevent it from coming true. He'd have to convince her that Neverland was a real place and that they should go there.

He took his sister's hands in his and squeezed them lightly. "It's real, Maria," he simply said. She looked at him, confused again.

"Neverland _is_ real, but we can only get there if we both believe it. Otherwise, you can only see it in your dreams and not actually leave this place."

Maria felt a little bit of hope begin to bloom in her. "But Jesse, how? How do I believe? How do we get there?"

"I can help you. I know that place well, been there several times in my dreams. I can tell you about the sky, the water, the sounds. And when you're there, anything is possible, absolutely anything. All you have to do is believe it's possible, and it happens."

Maria almost thought all of this was dream, but then she pinched herself and discovered their entire conversation was real. "I want to believe, Jesse. Like you do. I mean, damn, a place like Neverland?"

"I know!" Jesse replied, feeling the excitement staring to build in his sister. "No landlord, no running from cops, no homework or school -"

"Or worrying about getting a GED, or college, or paying rent, or answering to anybody," Maria interjected. "Yes, Jesse, I believe, I want to know what you know, please help me so we can go away from here. For good."

Jesse got up and turned on a light. He began telling his sister about the layout of Neverland, some of the sights and sounds he had experienced in his dreams. He left out things that would prove to be very important to Maria later on. Things such as the existence of Peter Pan and the Lost Boys. And the fact that they wouldn't be completely free from answering to anybody, but in Jesse's eyes, answering to Pan wasn't a bad thing. Pan wasn't a dictator, he was more like how Maria was: telling Jesse things to do for his own good rather than to control him.

As Jesse spoke, Maria's eyes began to glaze over with the wonder of it all. If they could get to Neverland, maybe she could see a real unicorn? After all, Jesse said anything was possible so long as you believed it was.

The siblings talked all night and made plans to leave as soon as the next night fell. Jesse was sure his sister believed enough for the shadow to come to them the next night, and he was right.

That was how the two actually came to Neverland.

That was how Misfit was now standing among many boys, of all ages and shapes, and colors. That was how she got to be standing in front of Peter Pan, in the flesh, and still in damp clothes with mud all on her back. And some in her hair. And some on her face. She was just a mess.

Pan studied the girl for a moment after the spark. She wasn't what he had pictured she'd be. She was a lot more resistant than what Jay-Jay had painted her to be like. But Pan loved challenges, they made the game more interesting. And Pan never failed; this task would be no exception.

First, he needed to make sure she was who she was supposed to be. Pan needed to test her. And what better time for a test than when the girl was clearly pissed off?

"Lost Boys!" he shouted, noticing he was losing some of their attention to the new girl, "Let's prepare a proper welcome celebration for our newest lost child, and, of course, to celebrate the real arrival of Jay-Jay." Pan clapped his hands once and any lost boy that was previously standing around, doing nothing, was now performing a task of some kind. Basically everyone was now doing something, except for Felix and the siblings.

Pan walked up to the three of them. "It's good to finally meet you, Maria," Pan greeted.

"Misfit," she corrected through gritted teeth. She was not liking how cocky this boy was being.

"My apologies, Misfit. Did you fall into a puddle on your way here?" he asked with a cute smile that made Misfit blush a little.

"No, we were actually swimming when the guys came to get us. And this one, over here," Jay-Jay explained, poking his sister playfully in the arm, "decided she didn't trust them and socked Felix in the face with a right hook. She went a little postal."

"Really?" Pan half exclaimed with raised eye brows. He looked from the girl to Felix's face. There was a fist size bruise beginning to show up on the lost boy's jaw. Now that was not something Pan had been expecting, but it told him that there was fire in this girl.

He couldn't wait to break her of it.

"I wouldn't have socked him if I knew he wasn't there to hurt us!" Misfit yelled at her brother. "If you had just told me from the get go that there were actually lost boys and Peter fucking Pan on the island, I wouldn't have freaked out," she further exclaimed.

"And you!" she directed at Felix, "If you hadn't been all secretive and carrying around that club like Bam-Bam Ruble, I wouldn't have had to jack you up!"

Felix stepped up to Misfit, but she didn't step away this time. He stared down at her, wanting to strike her for what she said, but he knew better than to do that with the current company present. Misfit stared up at him, daring him to try something.

Pan cleared his throat audibly, partially breaking the tension in the air around the four of them.

"So, sis, do you want to get cleaned up?" Jay-Jay asked awkwardly.

Misfit broke eye contact first, walking away from Felix to retrieve her bag that her brother was holding out for her.

"Wait," Pan interjected. He came closer to Misfit, invading her personal space the way Felix had. Misfit was really getting annoyed with that. Pan spoke so only those nearest could hear him.

"Do you know that anything you want, you can have, if you believe?"

Misfit didn't answer him verbally but gave him a 'say what' look.

"It's how Neverland works. You simply think of something you want, like to be clean and dry, and it will happen."

Felix held a veiled amused look on his face. He didn't know Pan's exact reason for allowing the girl on the island. She wasn't the one with the heart of the truest believer, but if he was wanting her to use her belief to make something happen, then Felix knew he was testing her for something that would be important later on.

"Yeah, Misfit. Just believe," Jay-Jay encouraged.

Misfit looked from boy to boy to brother, feeling a bit ganged up on and irritated.

"I'd rather jump back into the lake," she finally replied, turning once again to take her bag from her brother.

"No," Pan said firmly.

Misfit whipped her head around to face him. "Excuse you?" Her anger was bubbling up again.

"I said no. There's things that need to be done here. And it's rude to walk out of a celebration that is being held in your honor. You're. Not. Leaving."

Misfit stepped up to him and started ranting at him.

"You don't tell me what to do!" she yelled, her face not far from his.

Felix moved to be in between Misfit and Pan, and Jay-Jay was going to pull his sister back and restrain her, but Pan stopped them both with just a gesture of his hands. He wanted her mad. Mad enough to see if his test would work.

"My brother and I left L.A. so we could stop being told what to do by other people!" she continued. This earned her an eyebrow raise from Pan.

"I'm wet, and muddy, and fucking disgusting! I want a bath! It's rude to be at a celebration looking like you just crawled out of the sewage. So fuck off!"

Felix gripped his club to the point that his knuckles were white with strain. He really wanted to hit her with it for the words spew from her mouth at Pan, but Pan just glanced at him, in a no words way telling him to back off. But he wasn't pleased with what she was saying to him. He just hoped it was worth it in the end. Or he'd have to get rid of her. And part of him didn't want to do that. She was too fascinating.

"If you don't like it, then go jump off a cliff, and take your orders and -"

Pan was about to cut her off, this rant was getting old and what he wanted wasn't happening, and he was Peter Pan. No one spoke to him that way, at least not without severe consequences. But just as he sneered and opened his mouth to yell back at her, it happened.

" -shove them up your ass! I'm going to get clean!" Misfit finished. She turned to face her brother to snatch her things from him, once and for all. But Jay-Jay was frozen in place. His eyes widened and his jaw dropped when she turned to address him next. Pan and Felix merely smiled.

"What?" Misfit asked when she got the looks.

"You're... you're..." Jay-Jay stuttered.

"You did it," Pan said plainly with a triumphant smile on his face, a hint of relief in his tone.

Misfit paused for a moment to think. She had been so mad while yelling at the lead lost boy that she barely noticed when her clothes stopped clinging to her in their wetness, and her skin stopped feeling sticky with mud.

She looked at her arms, then grabbed a section of her hair for further analysis.

"What the what?" she whispered in astonishment.

Misfit was completely dry and clean of all mud, water, grass, everything. She was the way she had been when she first arrived in Neverland.

"Still going to leave?" Pan inquired.

Well, now Misfit felt a bit dumb at having thrown such a childish temper tantrum.

"Uh, I guess not anymore," she replied, a bit of a question in her tone.

"Good. Let's celebrate then."

Yes, Peter Pan had a lot to celebrate now that Misfit was on the island. Not only did she believe, but she also could make things happen with her belief. Pieces were slowly starting to fall into place. One item down, one left to take.

* * *

**Dun dun dun! What does Pan want with Misfit? What was the spark between them? What's the one left to take? So many more questions! But no worries, all will be answered in due time.**

**Please let me know what you think and THANK YOU to those who are following me. I will do my best to keep updating this story as regularly as I can, but I am human and real life gets in the way sometimes. *le sigh* (I also have two other stories of the Marvel genre that I need to update. If you like Marvel, go check 'em out.)**

**Oh, one more thing, some food for thought if you haven't already been pondering it yet. What time frame do you think all this is occurring in? Yes, it will be revealed over chapters, but I have dropped a few hints. You can answer it on your own or via a review or via a PM to me, whatever you'd like.**

**I hope everyone had a GREAT start to the New Year and that everything looks bright for your 2014! :)**


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